Recurrent floods hit desert cities

Berta Acero at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction: Recurrent flooding is becoming more of a threat in the Arab region, a part of the world usually associated with drought and desertification.  At least seven people were killed, schools were forced to close and vehicles were swept away in the latest flash flooding the Saudi Arabian province of Hail.

The Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) in the Arab States Region, Mr. Amjad Abbashar, said urban flooding is a growing challenge in the region as well as globally.  “It is becoming more dangerous and costly because of the increasing population exposed within urban settlements. It is very important that governments manage flood risk today for a safer future through better urban management and resilient infrastructures,” Mr. Abbashar said.

“There is an urgent need to move from relief operations to preparedness and risk reduction and mitigation measures. Flood risk is a reality in the Arab region and it is very important that governments invest in flood prevention measures and an adequate land use planning.”

Flash flooding triggered by heavy downpours has claimed dozens of lives in recent years in the region with Saudi Arabia and Jordan as well as Egypt among the worst affected. The international disaster database EM-DAT recorded at least 300 flooding events between 1981 and 2011 in the region.

Major floods have been hitting Saudi Arabia recurrently since 2009, when almost twice the yearly average of rain (90mm) fell in four hours. More than 100 people were killed and economic losses were estimated at US$270 million in and around of Jeddah....

2011 flooding in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, shot by Naif Abdullah, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons 2.0 license 

Saudi Arabia water supply could affect US security

PR Web: Fresh water security in Saudi Arabia is dangerously precarious, warns L. DeWayne Cecil, Ph.D., a former global climatologist and Atmospheric Scientist for NASA and NOAA. A two-year drought could throw this mostly desert country into chaos, which could pose a threat to the many countries dependent on Saudi oil to drive their economies.      

Cecil made the comments during a recent interview on the Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water® syndicated radio show on VoiceAmerica and Apple iTunes.

According to Dr. Cecil, Saudi Arabia has 27 million people and 2013 was the world’s number two petroleum producer, after Russia and slightly ahead of the United States. The US is pro
jected to become number one in 2015 (Lawler, A., “US to become world’s top oil producer in 2015,” MSN News, 11-13-13).

Despite having the world’s 19th largest economy, says Cecil, Saudi Arabia faces many challenges. According to Cecil, only 0.7% of their land surface is fresh water, compared to 13.5% in New York State. Saudi Arabia has no year-round rivers and almost no lakes. One-percent of Saudi land is arable compared to 16% in the United States (“Saudi Arabia,” CIA World Factbook, 2013).

Sharon Kleyne observed that the Saudi fresh water supply is precarious and sporadic, with frequent service interruptions. Fifty-percent of their fresh water, Kleyne explained, comes from desalinization plants and 10% comes from surface water capture. The other 40% comes from the mining of non-renewable ground water. According to Dr. Cecil, four-fifths of the ground water reserve has already been mined (Elie Elhadj, “Household water and sanitation services in Saudi Arabia,” Water Research Group, U. of London, 2004)....

Musk Lake in Saudi Arabia, where the sewage from Jeddah is pumped. Shot by Yousef Raffah, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license 

Rare downpours and floods hit Saudi capital

Space Daily via AFP: Rare heavy downpours triggered flash floods in the Saudi capital on Sunday forcing schools and universities to close and prompting calls by the authorities for citizens to remain indoors. At least three people were reported missing, the state news agency SPA said quoting civil defence spokesman Colonel Abdullah al-Harithi.

He added that authorities assisted dozens of people trapped by the floods, a rare phenomenon to hit the capital of the desert kingdom. Heavy rains, accompanied by thunderstorms, have lashed Riyadh since late Saturday triggering flash floods in several districts and cutting off power in the city's north, according to residents.

Harithi urged Riyadh citizens, estimated at more than five million people, to stay away from rivers, valleys and flooded tunnels while the education ministry ordered schools and university closed Sunday. Saudi Arabia, like other desert countries, rarely sees heavy rainfall and religious leaders often organise prayers for rain....

Saudi researchers say drones could warn of desert flash floods

UPI: Researchers in Saudi Arabia say they're working on a drone system that could track potentially deadly floods in real time to sound an alarm before they hit.

Flash floods are a risk in the country; at least 13 people died when floods hit parts of Saudi Arabia earlier this month, and two years ago more than a hundred died when thunderstorms saturated land to the east of the Red Sea port of Jeddah and a flash flood hit the city without warning.

Christian Claudel at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology says a drone system could warn such cities of an impending flood and also predict the flood's path, NewScientist.com reported Wednesday...

A "flying eye" drone, shot by Flying Eye, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Saudi Arabia sees more SARS-like virus cases

Al-Jazeerah.com: Saudi Arabia has confirmed four new cases of the SARS-like coronavirus in its Eastern Province, state media has reported, citing the health ministry.

The health ministry said that one of the four new cases had been treated and the patient had been released from hospital, while the three other new cases were still being treated, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday. 

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia said it had a total of 24 confirmed cases since the disease was identified last year, of whom 15 had died.

World Health Organisation officials visiting Saudi Arabia to consult with the authorities on the outbreak said on Sunday it seemed likely the new virus could be passed between humans, but only after prolonged, close contact....

The Gulf of Suez from orbit, via NASA

At least 18 dead, 4 missing in Saudi floods

Al-Arabiya: At least 18 people have died and four are missing in Saudi Arabia after nearly a week of heavy rain that has triggered flash floods in the desert kingdom, the civil defense authorities said on Thursday. People have drowned in several areas of the country, according to a statement quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The body of a man was recovered on Thursday in the Kowaiyia district. Another body was found in the city of al-Baha, and transferred to King Fahd Hospital despite rising water levels.

Rescue teams evacuated six villages in the south-western Bisha province, after a sand dam at the valley of Tabala partially collapsed. Authorities have been urging people to avoid valleys and plains flooded by heavy rainfall, which has continued since last Friday.

At least 250 rescue officers have been deployed, along with 15 divers, at the al-Aqiq dam. The heavy rains have almost filled the dam, with around 20 centimeters left before it overflows....

Aftermath of a 2011 flood in Jeddah, shot by Naif Abdullah, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Climate change to hit Saudi's agriculture, water

Wagdy Sawahel in SciDev.net: Scientists in Saudi Arabia say that by the end of 2050 parts of the country will be hotter and have reduced precipitation, which could affect agricultural productivity. The work was published in February's issue of the Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering.  It predicts that average temperatures in Saudi Arabia could increase by as much as four degrees Celsius, increasing agricultural water demands by up to 15 per cent to maintain current productivity levels.

Researchers investigated the effects of climate change on water resources in Saudi Arabia by analysing data on precipitation, relative humidity, soil moisture, temperature and wind speed from 1978 to 2003.

Lead researcher Shakhawat Chowdhury, of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, and his colleague Muhammad Al-Zahrani, based at the same university, found that higher temperatures could increase the levels of dissolved organic matter — such as ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorus — in surface water, especially after long periods of drought.

They say reductions in deep aquifer recharge, as a result of lower rates of rain as well as a rise in temperature, and surface run-off may dry out some of the country's valley basins, further reducing agricultural productivity.

Similar predictions have been made in previous reports, such as the 2012 World Bank report on climate change adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa region....

NASA image of the Arabian Peninsula

NASA sees Saudi Arabia draining their non-renewable aquifers

NASA: The green fields that dot the desert draw on water that in part was trapped during the last Ice Age. In addition to rainwater that fell over several hundred thousand years, this fossil water filled aquifers that are now buried deep under the desert's shifting sands. Saudi Arabia reaches these underground rivers and lakes by drilling through the desert floor, directly irrigating the fields with a circular sprinkler system. This technique is called center-pivot irrigation.

Because rainfall in this area is now only a few centimeters (about one inch) each year, water here is a non-renewable resource. Although no one knows how much water is beneath the desert, hydrologists estimate it will only be economical to pump water for about 50 years.

In this series of four Landsat images, the agricultural fields are about one kilometer (.62 miles) across. The images were created using reflected light from the short wave-infrared, near-infrared, and green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (bands 7, 4, and 2 from Landsat 4 and 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ sensors). Using this combination of wavelengths, healthy vegetation appears bright green while dry vegetation appears orange. Barren soil is a dark pink, and urban areas, like the town of Tubarjal at the top of each image, have a purple hue.

NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat, and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images that is freely available data over the Internet. The next Landsat satellite, now known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) and later to be called Landsat 8, is scheduled for launch in January 2013....

In this series of four Landsat images, the agricultural fields are about one kilometer across. Healthy vegetation appears bright green while dry vegetation appears orange. Barren soil is a dark pink, and urban areas, like the town of Tubarjal at the top of each image, have a purple hue. Credit: NASA/GSFC

Arab experts meet to beat impending water crisis

Abdul Hannan Tago in the Arab News (Saudi Arabia): Minister of Water and Electricity Abdullah Al-Hussayen yesterday raised the alarm by saying the Arab world would witness a severe water crisis by the year 2025. Al-Hussayen, who is also chairman of the National Water Company, attributed the alarming situation to the growing consumption at the opening ceremony of 10th Water Desalination Conference in the Arab Countries (ARWADEX 2012) at the InterContinental Hotel in Riyadh.

He said most Arabs are neither conscious of the acute problem nor of the magnitude of the looming disaster. The minister inaugurated the event on behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who conveyed his greetings to the participants and guests of the Kingdom. The four-day conference will discuss the latest techniques and methods of water desalination in the region.

The minister warned of an impending environmental disaster as a result of climate change and global warming. He cited a reliable report which indicates that the major cause of climate change was the uneven distribution of rain, leading to heavy rainfall or flooding in some areas and scant or no rainfall elsewhere.

He said that as a result of the situation Arab countries will face by the end of this century a decline of up to 25 percent in precipitation due to a high rate of evaporation. Another major concern was that global warming could lead to a decline in agricultural productivity of up to 20 percent....

Satellite photo of King Khalid Military City, Saudi Arabia taken June 30th, 2002. From NASA

Saudi Arabia wants cut of $100 billion adaptation fund

Mridul Chadha in Clean Technica: Saudi Arabia needs special treatment in the disbursement of funds from the $100 billion climate change adaptation fund, this is the proposal that the country has submitted to the United Nations. Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter, says that it faces economic vulnerability due to fluctuations in the global oil prices.

Decision to form an international climate change adaption fund was taken during the Copenhagen summit in December 2009 to provide financial help to developing and poor countries to set up clean energy infrastructure and aid technology transfer. United Nations had set a deadline of February 21, 2011 for providing comments and input from all parties involved. Saudi Arabia has said that it would need help develop solar power infrastructure and financial aid to diversify its energy options.

Saudi Arabia says that its economy would feel the pinch of an international climate change resolution as it would impact oil consumption around the world.

Saudi Arabia has has a long history of selfishly looking for its own gains, supporting any step which results in the world’s continued addiction for oil and has vehemently opposed almost all international efforts to curb global carbon emission output and increased use of renewable energy technologies. During the COP10 held at Buenos Aires in 2004, Saudi Arabia had opposed the very aid package for developing countries which it wants a share of now.

In 2009, the OPEC General Secretary said that use of oil is not responsible for climate change and that it is the industrial nations which are responsible for global warming. The statement came at a time when there was buzz about developed countries like the US and Canada considering to levy carbon tax on imported carbon-intensive goods….

Image of sand dunes in Rub' al Khali, Arabia's "empty quarter". Acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, aboard NASA's Terra Earth-orbiting satellite

Saudis block call for warming report

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Saudi Arabia on Thursday blocked a call by vulnerable island states at climate talks for a study into the impact of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming, delegates said. The appeal came from the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), gathering low-lying islands in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific, which is lobbying hard for the UN climate arena not to abandon the 1.5 C target.

The goal is receding as emissions of greenhouse gases rise and political problems for tackling climate change multiply. AOSIS, supported by the European Union (EU), Australia and New Zealand, called for a technical report on the cost of reaching the 1.5 C target and the consequences of breaching it.

But it was thwarted by Saudi Arabia, with support from Kuwait and Qatar, under the UN's consensus rule, the sources said. Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers argue that ratcheting up action on carbon emissions will hurt their revenues as fossil-fuel consumers switch to cleaner energy.

The spat soured the mood in Bonn, where a 12-day round under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) draws to a close on Friday. "The atmosphere [in the meeting] was very bad. Many countries said they were very disappointed with the Saudis," said one source…..

Saudi king orders prosecutions in Jeddah flood disaster

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Saudi King Abdullah on Monday called for the prosecution of an unstated number of officials and businessmen after a flood in Jeddah last year killed at least 123 people and sparked a rare outburst of public anger. Abdullah said in a royal order that justice ministry prosecutors should take action on cases of alleged corruption and malfeasance in managing city construction and land which may have exacerbated the November 25 disaster.

…It came a month after Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of the Mecca region which includes Jeddah, presented the king with the results of preliminary investigations into the flood. Thousands of families were left homeless by the inundation of the Red Sea coast city of more than three million after heavy rains in the mountains to the east sent water gushing down into the coastal plain. More than 10,785 buildings were wrecked and 10,850 vehicles destroyed, according to official statistics….

Call for three new dams to contain Jeddah floods

Arab News: Three dams should be built in Jeddah’s Wadi Qaus and linked to rainwater drainage canals to help prevent flooding in the city’s eastern districts, according to a workshop set up by Makkah’s governor. It also says the residential district of Umm Al-Khair should be evacuated to save its residents from future floods. These are some of the recommendations from the workshop, set up by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, to ensure there is no repetition of the death toll from the disastrous floods of Nov. 25, which claimed over 100 people’s lives.

The Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) will soon start preparing a study on the possibility of constructing the Wadi Qaus dams and identify their required water storage capacity. It will also identify the districts and buildings that can remain in the area and those need to be removed because of flood risks.

The workshop, opened by Prince Khaled last week, said the SGS study should cover the engineering, design and environment of the dams and how to link them with drainage canals. The study has been given a completion date of six weeks.

The dams will be constructed within a month of completing necessary studies and once all buildings in its path are removed. The route for the Haramain railway, which links Jeddah with Makkah and Madinah, will also be reviewed to ensure that it will not be affected by plans for the dams….

The road from Jeddah to Medina, shot by Ammar shaker, Wikimedia Commons

Huge sewage lake threatens flood-hit Jeddah

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Weeks after a devastating flash flood, residents of Jeddah fear that further heavy rainfall could bring a huge, brimming reservoir of raw sewage cascading onto Saudi Arabia's Red Sea capital. Until the November 25 flood submerged homes and roads, killing at least 120 people, every day a line of tanker trucks made their way from Jeddah, a city of 2.6 million with almost no municipal sewerage system, to Musk Lake in the hills 12 kilometres (seven miles) to the east to dump fetid loads of human waste.

Last month's deadly flood showed what could happen. Ninety millimetres (3.5 inches) of heavy rain falling on non-absorbent desert soils turned into what some residents called a tsunami-like wave that rolled into Jeddah, overwhelming its limited storm drainage system. Spillways constructed long ago were already overbuilt with housing, exacerbating the disaster.

Now, every day, Abdullah Saad keeps one eye on the cloudy sky over his home in the Samer district just east of the city, where he lives with his wife and four children. "Samer is just 12 kilometres from the lake, and if it rains heavily we will leave the neighborhood to protect ourselves from the sewage," he said.

"We have seen the death and destruction of nearby neighbourhoods and we are afraid of rain, not to mention the putrid water." The reservoir -- ironically named by locals after the perfume ingredient -- has posed a threat to the city for 20 years, said Ali Ishdi, a professor of ecology at Jeddah's King Abdul Aziz University, itself badly damaged by last month's floods….

The Medina Road in Jeddah, shot by Ammar shaker, Wikimedia Commons

Jeddah flood deaths shame Saudi royals

Ali al-Ahmed in the Guardian (UK): Last week the Saudi city of Jeddah was afflicted by heavy rains that lasted only a few hours but caused massive flooding and the deaths of more than 500 people. To lessen the embarrassment, official reports shrank the number of flood-related deaths to just over 100. Many Saudis are asking how such a catastrophe could occur in one of the world's richest countries and in its second-largest and most cosmopolitan city.

This was the most severe nature-related calamity that the world's largest oil exporter has seen in the past 50 years but the real reason for the death and destruction that occurred last Wednesday is endemic corruption in the Saudi government.

Jeddah is a great example of corruption. This city of more than 4 million people still lacks a sewage system and treatment facility. The rain that fell last week had nowhere to go but to flood the streets and neighbourhoods, creating havoc and death in its path.

Hundreds of bodies were swept in the current and up to 11,000 people may be missing in the sea, according to a report two days ago by the Saudi newspaper al-Yaum. This figure may be inflated but the number of the missing and dead surely ranks in the hundreds, and could turn out to exceed a thousand. For comparison, hurricane Katrina in the US killed about 1,800 people.

The Saudi government reaction to the disaster in Jeddah followed the usual formula of denial followed by blame of the victims for failing to follow government orders. Instead of taking responsibility, a Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca region, in which Jeddah lies, blamed "arbitrarily built" neighbourhoods, and not the absence of a sewage system. Saudi media, which is mostly owned and fully controlled by the ruling family, followed suit and pointed a finger at citizens who bought land and built houses in unplanned areas….

A map of Jeddah, created by Physchim62 using data from OpenStreetMap, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Saudi expert warns of more floods

Ghazzanfar Ali Khan in Arab News: A climate change expert has cautioned Saudis and residents to be vigilant against flash floods, saying that more heavy downpours, cold spells, heat waves and drought are expected because of changes in climatic conditions. Mansour Almazroui, chief of the department of meteorology at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), has blamed “abrupt climate change” for the devastating floods in Jeddah last week.

Almazroui, who called for taking measures against possible floods, landslides, building collapses, and erosion in coastal cities, said, “The amount of rainfall received by Jeddah on Nov. 25 was unprecedented in terms of volume and intensity. It was recorded as 90 millimeters within six hours, causing flash floods, ravaging the city.” According to records, Jeddah has never recorded such heavy rain in such a short period, he said.

“The rainfall came after the Arabian Peninsula suffered from prolonged drought that led to a shortage of water resources and depletion of many wells,” said the meteorologist. He noted that similar rainfall was recorded in the central region last year at more or less the same time. The downpour at that time caused flooding along Wadi Al-Rumah, which is the longest wadi in Saudi Arabia….

A Jeddah street, shot by Thomas Becker, Wikimedia Commons

Saudi flood death toll up to 103

Khabrein.info: The Saudi death toll from floods that hit the port city of Jeddah this week has risen to 103, with another 1,399 rescued, Saudi civil defense services said on Sunday. Civil defense planes flew over the flood-affected areas searching for missing people, Jeddah authorities said in a news release. Relief aid have already been delivered to the affected families in Jeddah, it said, adding that they had been taken to hotels and furnished housing units until the situation was back to normal.

Torrents of water inundated the Red Sea port on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia saw some of the heaviest rainfall in years. Many of the victims were drowned or were killed by collapsing bridges and in car crashes….

Jeddah in 1938. Because we're always current here at Carbon Based